


Avatar: The Legend of Lance

by padawin



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe, Angst, F/M, Fluff, I think?, Keith is super rude and angsty, M/M, More tags to be added, Slow Burn, Why does Keith always suffer so much in my stories, avatar AU, bi!lance, gay!keith, i don't know how to tag, major character death marvel edition, rivals to friends to lovers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-03-17
Updated: 2017-06-27
Packaged: 2018-10-06 20:39:43
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 4
Words: 16,125
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10344135
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/padawin/pseuds/padawin
Summary: "Air. Earth. Fire. Water. Long ago the four nations lived in harmony, but all changed when the 100-year-war broke out. Only the Avatar, master of all elements, was able to once again bring back peace.  Avatar Alfor created a new era of people working together to bring forward civilisation. An era of invention, progress, cooperation, of new ideas and opportunities, of democracy and balance.But with change come new conflicts that have never been encountered, and so new solutions must be created, new ways must be found.Will the new Avatar be able to uphold peace?"Or:Lance runs away to Republic City to get his airbending training. But what he encounters when wandering the streets, lost, is not what he expected. In fact, it's quite impossible. And yet, there he is, Keith Kogane, existing against all odds.(Avatar AU, currently on HIATUS because I'm planning on rewriting it. Someday. Not any time soon, sorry.)





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> So, I've been watching Avatar: Legend of Korra and got very inspired. Although, it's basically an A: LoK AU and starts off _extremely_ similar, I'm not planning on copying the plot of the series and during the first episodes of the show started planning my own plot which I have for this . There are also things, facts true in the avatar universe, that I've purposely changed, but I will mention that if it comes up. 
> 
> In this fanfiction, Avatar Aang doesn't exist, instead it's Avatar Alfor. 
> 
> I hope you enjoy this!

_"Air._

 

_Earth._

 

_Fire._

 

_Water._

 

_Long ago the four nations lived in harmony, but all changed when the 100-Year-War broke out. The Fire Nation led by the power-hungry Firelord, declared war, successfully invading the rest of the four nations, expanding its Empire._

_Only the Avatar, master of all elements, could bring back peace. But when the world needed him the most, he vanished. Knowing the next Avatar was to be of airbending skill, the Fire Nation massacred the population of the Air Nation and destroyed their homes, the Air Temples._

_With the absence of the Avatar, the world's balance was thrown off and no one stood in the way of the Fire Nation's Empire._

_Nearly a hundred years passed and two secret lovers, a fire and a waterbender, found the new Avatar, an airbender named Alfor. Believing it to be destiny that led them to each other, the Lovers decided to assist Avatar Alfor in re-establishing the world's balance and bring peace back to the people._

_At the same time, the Firelord's son, Zarkon, a firebender, had been building up a Resistance in secret to overthrow his father._

_While Avatar Alfor started the training of the elements, rumours spread of the new Avatar's existance and Prince Zarkon was supposed to find the Avatar. But when Zarkon finally found him, he betrayed his father and joined the Avatar, becoming his teacher in firebending._  
_Between Avatar Alfor and Zarkon an easy friendship of shared visions for the world established and they built the Resistance of the Five Paladins to go through with a plan to stop the Firelord once and for all. The Plan was to send the Five Paladins to different parts of the Fire Nation's Empire and find new followers for the Resistance as while simultaneously fighting back the Empire's colonialisation._

_The Green Paladin, an earthbender, was sent to the former Earth Kingdom._

_The Blue Paladin, a waterbender, was sent to the Watertribes, first to the Southern pole, then to the Northern pole._

_The Red Paladin, a firebender, was sent to the Fire Nation to fuel disapproval of the harsh reign of the Firelord._

_The Yellow Paladin, Avatar Alfor, kept to the outskirts of the Earth Kingdom, to learn the skill of earthbending._

_The Black Paladin, Prince Zarkon, went back home, claiming the Avatar to be dead. There, in the military, he gathered followers for the Resistance._

_Although the Avatar was officially deceased and the Firelord sent all waterbenders to be incarcerated, the Resistance was said to have a Secret Weapon._

 

_Little before the Solar Eclipse came, the Colonies had been freed and the Fire Nation's Empire was reduced to its original size. When the sun turned dark, the Resistance attacked, successfully taking away the throne from the Firelord, Prince Zarkon taking his place. Unfortunately, the war did not end there._

_Firelord Zarkon betrayed the Five Paladins and killed the Green and Blue Paladins, forcing the Red Paladin into exile. At last, Firelord Zarkon and Avatar Alfor faced each other, on the island that is now known as the Air Temple Island of Republic City. But what happened on that fateful day is mostly unknown. Their battle, though, could be seen from miles away. It's said that Avatar Alfor rid Zarkon of his bending powers, who, not willing to live such a life, jumped to his death._  
_Thus, the evil was finally defeated._

 

 _The Red Paladin became the new Firelord, working closely with Avatar Alfor. Deciding that they needed to shift the political power to neutral grounds, they founded the Nation-City Republic City on former Earth Kingdom Territory, in the centre of their world._  
_Avatar Alfor created a new era of people working together to bring forward civilisation. An era of invention, progress, cooperation, of new ideas and opportunities, of democracy and balance._

 

_But with change come new c_ _onflicts that have neer been encountered and so new solutions must be created, new ways must be found. Will the new Avatar be able to uphold peace?_

 

_My name is Allura of Republic City, daughter of Avatar Alfor. And I am in search of the new Avatar."_


	2. Beginnings (Air)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance is his impulsive self, runs away from home and strikes up a fight that creates a conflict much larger than he originally expected to face.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so, since last chapter was more a history lesson, here is an _real_ chapter
> 
> Edit: I changed the title from "Beginnings (Fire)" to "Beginnings (Air)". I also was able to finally think of a name for the Probending team!

"WOHOOOO! Did you see that? Did you see how high I can levitate that rock? And then, how it crashed down on him? ...I mean-"  
  
The brunet boy cleared his throat awkwardly and rubbed at his neck, then tugged at the collar of his brown and green uniform. The uniform consisted of a long-sleeved shirt and pants with metal armour and a helmet that made his head itch. But at least he wouldn't get a concussion anytime soon, right? The boy stood straight and bowed low towards the man lying in front of him, buried beneath a large rock. The man wore the same uniform as the boy, just like the other man lying several feet across the small arena away from them. With a faked calm and respectful expression on his face, the boy put his right fist against his left palm.

"It was an honour fighting against you. I thank you for your service."

Still bowing, the boy opened an eye to look at the small group of people gathered at the head of the arena. The three eldest of the group was dressed each in the colours of the nation they represented. Red and black for the Fire nation, green and brown for the Earth nation, and blue and white for the Water nation. They were all accompanied by at least two servants each, dressed in similar colours as their masters and mistress, only much less fancy.

The boy looked past all of them towards a particular man who kept behind the group and stood out quite a lot with the brightly ginger hair of his and the mustache on his face. He was dressed in monk robes, not in thick cloaks like the rest of them, but he didn't look cold at all, despite the arctic temperature. He gave the boy a curt nod upon meeting his blue eyes. Briefly, the ginger man looked around, as if checking that no one else was looking his way, then directed a wide grin towards the boy, showing off his perfect teeth, while lifting his thumbs in excited approval. The boy grinned and stood straight again, running a couple of feet towards where the group stood before he froze a path to them, sliding his way towards them to get there faster.

When the boy reached the group, the ginger man enveloped him in a brief but tight hug.  
The three particularly important-looking elders of the group, stepped forward to speak to the boy. But they were interrupted when he was tackled to the ground by three little kids, seemingly appearing out of nowhere.

The oldest of the three kids was a boy of the age of six, with messy brown hair and pale skin, blue eyes shining bright with excitement. His short arms wrapped tightly around the older boy's neck. "Lance! That was SO awesome!!"

Lance Alvaréz Sanchez sat up and propped himself up on his elbows, chuckling, although looking worriedly at the younger kid hugging him. "Mateo, aren't you sick and supposed to be in bed? You escaped from Mamá again, haven't you."

"But I wanted to see you earthbend the _heck_ out of these buttheads!" Mateo stood up from the sitting position he had had on Lance's belly, standing with his chest puffed out, posing with one of his fists thrust forward, a pose he had seen oftentimes while watching his big brother Lance train on late nights. Lance just shook his head and sighed amused, looking towards the identical-looking two-year-olds, one of them wrapped around each of his arms.

The two kids, a boy and a girl, grinned up at him in unison upon meeting his eyes, showing off their teeth gaps. They had dark skin matching the shade Lance had himself , their skin tone as dark as his own as well. Their eyes were blue, too, but of a far more piercing icy colour than Lance had. "Isi... Iggy... Wasn't aunt Marcia looking after you? I bet you are worrying her." Isabél and Ignacio simultaneously pushed out their lower lips in a pout, looking slightly guilty, but Lance could only grin at them. They were too adorable to be mad at. He freed his arms and wrapped the two in a hug against his side.

Above them, one of the three elders, the one representing the Fire nation cleared his throat, looking annoyed at the group of kids before him. Swallowing hard with embarrassment, Lance stood up, bowing towards the rest of the group in apology, his younger siblings following his example. "Sorry for the interruption." Lance said.

"You're forgiven." The elder dressed in red replied with a roll of his eyes, huffing. The elder dressed in blue stepped forward with a warm smile.

"As the council of the White Lotus, founded by Avatar Alfor to supervise the matters of the new Avatar, we have watched the progress of your earthbending training and we are happy to announce that you have passed today's last test. Young Avatar Lance, you have officially mastered the traditional art of earthbending."

Lance couldn't help but let out a loud 'whoop!' and thrust his fist up into the air in triumph, which caused the children present to cheer loudly alongside him. Once again, Lance forced himself to take a deep breath and fake composure, yet again putting his fist against his palm and bowing down in respect. Isabél, Ignacio, and Mateo copied his gesture.

"I am very thankful for your judgement and I thank you for your service, council of the White Lotus."

The three elders and the ginger man at the back copied Lance's gesture as well in reply.

"Now that this is dealt with, we will be heading back to the Capital. We leave the rest of the matter to you, Council member Coran." Coran, the ginger-haired man in the back, nodded and watched the rest of the council members leave before turning back to Lance and his siblings, wrapping them all up in a tight group hug.

"Well done, my boy! You are becoming a spectacular Avatar! I am so proud of you! Your mother will be delighted to hear the good news!"

"She'll be more delighted to know that these three are somewhere safe. I remember last time they disappeared they were playing 'hiking' by the cliff." He looked at Mateo and the twins with playful disapproval who all replied with wide grins that were supposed to look angelic. And god, did they look angelic.

"Come on on, then, let's bring these darlings back and deliver the good news to your parents! I believe your father should be back from fishing by now."

 

They made their way back to the house-tent Lance had been born in and called his home.

Lance had spent his entire life at the Southern Water tribe. He had grown up here, went to school here, had received all his training here so far. He couldn't wait to finally master all elements and be able to leave this sheltered life, travel the world, help the people, get to know the other nations and cultures. He NEEDED to get out of this place. It was slowly driving him crazy. There was barely anything to do for someone his age. School ended for you when you were 15 years, Lance was already 17. He already spent most of his day training or took out his giant pet snow leopard caribou for strolls. You surely needed to get a life when your best friend was a giant cat and the highlight of your life were the times your kind-of-uncle Coran came to visit and tell you about the outside world. The annual Spirit Festival was a nice change, too, usually, as the people of the Northern Water Tribe would visit, but then again the people of the Northern tribe were pretty stuck-up most of the time. And Lance had already tried his luck with most of the girls from there.

When Lance , Coran, and the three kids arrived at the wooden house that was their home, Coran entered in first, Lance following while pushing the three escaped kids into the home before him.

"There you are! Aunt Marcia has been searching for you three for over an hour! Can you _imagine_ how worried she was about you disappearing without telling her where you went?" A short woman with black curly hair, dark skin, warm brown eyes, and an apron wrapped around her waist, exclaimed and stood up from the desk she had been sitting at. Rosa Sanchez, mother of the three children and teen standing in the room, and two others who were absent as of now, looked disapprovingly at Mateo and the twins who lowered their heads with a pout at the scolding. Rosa spared them, though, by looking up and getting herself distracted by the two others who had arrived with her youngest children.

"They followed you to the arena, haven't they?" She deduced, speaking to Lance. " I should have known they would be excited to watch your exam." She shook her head one last time at her three children, looking at her fourth son. For a moment Rosa observed the expressions of Lance and Coran and she tilted her head pensively. Then, her entire face seemed to lighten up with the realisation that hit her.

"You passed!" Lance's mother threw her arms into the air , then wrapped her son in a bone-crashing hug, pushing his face into her chest despite Rosa being a lot shorter than Lance was.

"Mamá, you are choking me!"

"I am so happy for you, cariño!" Finally, she released him, but grabbed his face, delivering a storm of kisses to it. "I am so proud!" Despite his whining, Lance indulged in his mother's praises. He really was a mama's boy, but hell would he do to ever admit it.

When another presence entered the small den, Rosa released her son to turn to her newly arrived husband, clapping her hands together, her eyes sparkling with excitement, an expression all of her children had inherited. "Juán! He passed! Our baby is growing up so soon." Her eyes began to water slightly.

Juán, still standing at the home's entrance smiled brightly. Juán Alvaréz was a medium-tall man with brown hair and blue eyes. Half his hair was tied up in a ponytail at the back of his head to keep it out of his face. He wore the Southern Water Tribe's trademark necklace on his neck and the typical clothes consisting of a thick fur coat and thick pants. Over his shoulder he was carrying a net filled with some fish, although Lance knew it wasn't his whole catch. He had probably already divided the catch among his companions on the hunt. Juán shed his fur coat to reveal another layer of thick clothes, although significantly less warm. He dumped the net in a basket for his wife to later on use, and finally turned around towards the group of people in his home.

He directed his gaze at Lance, who stood a little straighter, holding his breath, the aftermath of his smile and excitement still tugging lightly at his lips. Admittedly, Lance held respect for only few people. For example, the council of the White Lotus that had supervised his test earlier in the day. Lance only faked respect for them as to not displease Coran. But his father was an entirely different story. Lance could be disrespectful, a loud mouth, and get stubborn when following his own plans but one word of his father could and would stop him.

Juán walked towards Lance, planting a heavy gloved hand on Lance's shoulder, a proud smile on his face. "I am so proud of you, son."

"Thanks, Dad."

They both turned to look at Rosa when she gave a sniffle, eyes still shiny with tears although she couldn't be prouder or smile any brighter. "Let's celebrate! I'll get my sisters to help me cook and we'll throw a party! Coran, you are our honored guest, you have helped Lance so much on his way. We are so very thankful."

"The pleasure is all mine. Lance is a very talented boy!"

 

The day had been eventful, to say the least. When the Alvaréz family threw a party everyone in their tribe was invited, the amount of food was enormous but so was the amount of people present. They played games, Lance got to be a show-off with his bending abilities, they gathered around a fire and sang songs, danced. Although it was cold where they lived the people never failed to express warmth and familiarity.

At the end of the day each member of the Alvaréz family was assigned a task to help tidy up the mess such a celebration always left. Rosa was folding clothes while Lance and his older siblings, Claudia and Matias, were washing the dishes. Coran sat with their father at the table, conversing. Although it was mostly Coran telling stories about the current life in Republic City, as he always did when visiting. He was just briefly telling about some unrest the city's reigning Council had to deal with, which he also was involved in as he was a Councilman as well, when Lance interrupted.

"Well, then, you'll be happy over here for a while! I mean, when my airbending training starts you'll have SO much to do, because I honestly _suck_ at controlling air. I accidentally blew Mat out of the house last week when sneezing! Let me tell you _that wasn't pretty_!" Claudia laughed at the memory while Matias looked quite distressed, obviously reliving the incident.The adults at the table exchanged looks of uneasiness.

"You haven't told him yet?" Coran asked Juán with a pained expression.

"We hoped he'd rather hear it from you personally."

Lance frowned and turned around from where he had been washing the dishes in the kitchen sink. "What haven't you told me yet?"

"Lance, my boy." Coran started, leaning his crossed arms on the table to support himself, leaning into Lance's direction. The surface was cold and he shivered. "The unrest in Republic City is exactly why I cannot leave for a longer period. I'm only visiting for today. Tomorrow I have to return home." Lance huffed and crossed his arms, ignoring the soapy water dripping from his arms, now soaking his shirt.

"Okay. Then I will just have to go back with you. It'd be the perfect opportunity to finally go out and know some more of the world I'm supposed to protect someday!"

"I'm afraid that won't be possible."

"What do you mean that won't be possible!" The water covering Lance's clothing started to evaporate. Creating steam was something he often did when getting angry. "You weren't expecting me to stay here, far away from the rest of the _world_ until I die, right? How can I be the Avatar if I don't go out to be _protecting_ people?! The Avatar can't be hiding away at home!"

"Of course you are right, but it's not the right time yet to expose you to the outside. The White Lotus already talked it over and decided that you will be staying more time at home than originally planned . Instead of starting your airbending training a firebender will be coming to train you. I will have to wait with mentoring you for a while longer."

"But you said that firebending would be the last element I'd learn, because of some spiritual something you came up with! You YOURSELF gave me an hour-long lecture about how important it was for me to learn the elements first that came easiest to me, so it was of _utter importance_ that I learned firebending _last_ , because I can't form a stupid flame for shit!"

"Lance, that's not how you talk to authority! Show some respect!" Everyone in the room turned their head towards Lance's father who had spoken up, standing now. "The White Lotus has been protecting you for all this time. If they decide this is for the best, then you will have to be an adult about it and respect their decision."

Lance clenched his teeth together, hands formed tightly to fists at his sides, still steaming. He narrowed his eyes at his father, debating whether it would be worth it to talk back to him.In the end, he decided to yield and turned around, storming out of the house while whistling a sharp tone. Heavy steps approached and when the family ran out after Lance, he was just swinging onto Blue, a large snow leopard caribou, shouting " _Go!_ ". The large feline bolted off into the snow storm raging outside.

"Well, THAT didn't go quite as planned, now, did it."

 

Lance sighed heavily when he finally came back to his home, eyes puffy and nose runny. "I guess I'll just have to suck it up and stop being a child about things, huh, Blue?" He muttered and rubbed the large cat behind the ears while leading her into the stall. She replied by butting her antler-less head into his chest, making him 'uff'. He rubbed her head some more before delivering a quick kiss to her fur, finally leaving her in the stable beside the house-tent.

When he entered the house, the lights were turned off with the exception of a candle set on the table in front of his mother. She had her elbow on the table, cheek resting on her palm while regular low breaths left her parted lips. There were three blankets draped over her back, her children probably leaving them there, one after the other. Lance didn't know how long he had been out, sulking, but it must have been quite some time.

"Mamá.... ey.... Mamá, wake up." He muttered, kneeling beside Rosa on the carpet, softly shaking her shoulder. Rosa flinched at the touch, but looked up through glassy eyes, yawning. Her eyes were puffy as well and it broke his heart to see her like this.

"Lance?"

"I'm sorry for leaving like that." He truly felt guilty. Obviously, she had worried. His mother always worried for her children. Sometimes, too much. When Matias had left to see the world and 'find himself', she had been a nervous wreck for years, despite all the letters Matias had sent their way, until he had finally come back.

"It's fine. I understand why you're upset. Your father and I should have told you sooner." She gave him a sad smile, caressing his cheek. She licked at her thumb and rubbed under his left eye, cleaning off some of the dried tears.

Lance shook his head and helped her up, blowing off the candle. "No, it's okay. Really. Go to bed. I promise I'll apologise to Coran tomorrow. And to Papá." Rosa nodded.

 

The next day had been quite uneventful, still slightly demoralising for Lance. Of course he was still upset. As promised he had apologised to Coran, expressing his gratitude for taking care of the matter of the Avatar and for being there for him. Lance really appreciated Coran. For Lance, the man wasn't just the member of the White Lotus that had been assigned to take to the business regarding the Avatar most of the time, he wasn't just some authoritative figure stuck with Lance. No, Lance truly appreciated him as a friend, some kind of crazy uncle. Coran visited very often, especially when he was younger. He answered Lance's questions of all kinds, advised him, helped him, had won his trust in matters that he couldn't always share with his siblings or parents, including but not limited to matters of the heart such as crushes.

Then, Lance had also apologised to his father, for acting out like that, for embarrassing the family in front of such an important guest as Coran. His father was the chief of their tribe, his children had to set an example, too. Especially Lance, being the avatar. It was both a nice but also even more pressuring addition that the Chief's son was the new Avatar.

But now it was yet again night, Coran had left already in the morning as promised, and Lance laid awake in his bed, listening to the soft breaths of his youngest siblings, who he shared his room with. Lance couldn't sleep, still upset about being kept away from the world.

What could be so dangerous outside of Water Nation territory that they so desperately wanted Lance, wanted _the Avatar_ to stay away from? And if it was so dangerous, wouldn't the avatar be the perfect solution for whatever it was? Coran had so often told him about what the Avatar meant to the people. He was the sign of hope, the sign of balance. The Avatar gave people the security that there was someone powerful making sure the world's balance and justice was kept. Among the people, between humans and spirits, in whatever other conflict might come up. _So why were they keeping the Avatar away?_

Finally, Lance couldn't take it anymore. He had been only playing with the thought, dancing around it, not daring to think about the risky idea for too long, in fear that he might actually go through with the plan. Lance was impulsive like that. But it was hard not to think about something you were desperately trying to ignore.

With a deep breath he sat up, trying to move slow and silently as to not wake Mateo and the twins. He took a sheet of paper from one of Mateo's notebooks which he used for school, the ripping sound making the children shuffle in their sleep. But thank god, they continued sleeping. Taking a pencil from Mateo as well, Lance wrote a quick note, placing it on his sleeping futon on the ground. He grabbed a handful of clothes from his drawer, shoving it into a travelling bag, before dressing himself as well, sneaking out of the dorm into the tent's main room, the living room area. The candle still rested on the desk, although unlit. He silently stepped around the table, to outside, to the stables. The snowstorm was stronger than the night before. He wondered if there were even any boats that would sail tonight. He could only hope. At least it would be easier to sneak into one with the storm raging.

In the stables he woke up Blue, rubbing at her fluffy white blue-spotted fur, thus the name four-year-old Lance had given her. Lance hushed her when she started purring at him, holding her head and leaning their forehead against each other.

"Come on, Blue. We're getting out of here. No one will keep me from becoming the Avatar-."

"Except maybe Dad, when he finds out you're running away."

Startled, Lance whipped his head around to the stall's entrance, where Claudia had spoken up. Beside her stood Matias. Both had their arms crossed, sceptic looks on their faces. In that moment, the resemblance to their mother's look, whenever Lance had gotten into trouble in school, was remarkable. Instantly, Lance felt all the more guilty for planning to run away than already.

"Guys, don't tell me you are actually on their side! Can't you see? I can't become a proper Avatar, protector of the people an all that, if I have never seen anything _outside_ of the water tribe! I'm not a child anymore-"

"Okay, first of all, you are totally not 'not a child anymore'." Claudia interrupted him by speaking up. She stomped over to him, grabbing and pulling at his nose, something she used to do a lot as a kid and still did nowadays when teasing him about childish behaviour. Training to be the Avatar forced a lot of mature behaviour on you, especially when you had to fake mature behaviour most of the time. Lance had become a great actor due to that. He could lie like no one else. "Especially in Mamá's eyes you are still her chubby baby!" Finally, she let go of his nose with a final emphasising tug. "Second, we totally KNOW that keeping you here doesn't help you become a better Avatar, if nothing it only makes your whining worse and more annoying."

"If you're trying to make me change my mind about this, it's not working-"

"Shut up and listen. Third, we aren't here to stop you." Lance halted at that, looking at them with big eyes. Claudia looked quite determined, hands now on her waist. But Matias was looking aside, arms still crossed, gaze uncertain. "Well, Mat was originally going to stop you," She explained, pointing at her older brother with her thumb."-saying Dad would kill us if he finds out we actually helped you leave, but he needs to get the stick out of his arse-"

"Claudia, I'm standing _right here_ -"

"So I guilt-tripped him into helping. After all, HE was the first one to run away" She raised her hands to gesture quotation marks into the air with her fingers. "- _'in search of himself'_ , So yeah. We're here to help. I bet you forgot to take food with you. You don't even know how long exactly the ride to Republic City is, right? Without me helping you out, you would have starved and we'd have to search a new Avatar before our current one, you, could have even become a proper one!"

Lance stared at them for a long moment, wiping down over his face before enveloping them in a tight hug, resting his chin on Claudia's shoulder. "Thanks, guys."

"It's fine, I just hope it doesn't become some family tradition for sons to run away into the world. If Mateo is next, we'll have to keep a good look on Iggy."

Lance laughed at that and released them, Matias giving an amused smile. It was clear he wasn't comfortable with tonight's outcome, but Lance was thankful for his help.

 

Finally, with a bag full of clothes and food, Lance climbed onto Blue's back, taking a hold of her reins and making his way out of the stables with her. Matias and Claudia had given him money to pay a ticket for the boat to Republic City, which would be sailing soon. He needed to hurry.

"Lance." Said boy looked down to where his older brother had spoken up. Matias hesitated for a moment, not sure how to say what he was going to say. "Republic City-... Nevermind. Just be careful out there."

Lance smiled down at him, the excitement slowly powering over the anxiety of leaving his home. "Take care of Mateo for me." Then, he finally rode Blue into the snow storm towards the port.

 

 

Claudia had been right, Lance _hadn't_ known just how long it would take for him to reach Republic City. He had never travelled _anywhere_ so of course he didn't even have any trip to compare this one to. At first Lance had been able to distract himself by sleeping. All the worrying of the past few days and the hard earthbending training had given him little time to fully rest, something he was unfortunately quite used to by now. So he indulged in the opportunity of napping for how long he wanted. After all, they were several days away from even reaching the next shore. It was only when the ship finally reached the shore of the Southern part of the Earth Kingdom that Lance found his way out of boredom.

The Earth Kingdom was entirely different to what he had seen back at the water tribe. Although it was still cold on the sea, Lance had quickly noticed the change in temperature. It became a lot warmer and soon he had been forced to shed his thick fur coat and leave the quarters below deck near the engines. On deck he got to see the first city they arrived at. The water tribe was merely a group of several smaller tribes at the Southern Pole, nothing more than villages, so the high towers made of stone, the various shades of brown and green and yellow, the huge amount of people living there at the same place.... It was a vast contrast to all known to Lance.  
Lance had believed the ship he had boarded on had been impressively large, it was indeed much larger than any boats and ships he had seen at the Southern Water tribe, but beside the other ships at the Earth Kingdom's Southern main port it looked barely impressive at all. It was barely half the size of the other ships!  
When the people had boarded and the ship started to leave the port, Lance hadn't seen enough just yet. He wanted to see more of the city! Quickly, he turned around, tugging on the reins of Blue so that she would follow quick, but one particular tug snapped Blue's reins and Lance fell backwards, right into another passenger. The big guy had been drinking something just then, the drink spilling onto him when Lance had pushed against him.

"Aw, man!" The big guy whined out, shivering in the cold air in his soaked clothes.

"Sorry, man!" Lance exclaimed and ran a hand through his hair, before lifting his hands. "Here, let me help." With a quick gesture Lance waterbent the drink off the big guy's clothes back into the bottle. The big guy grinned at him.

"Thanks. Awesome trick! I'm Hunk. Who are you?" Hunk introduced himself and held out a large hand to Lance, which he gladly shook.

"The name's Lance. Hunk's quite the.... fitting name." Lance couldn't help but tease. The big guy just looked too friendly. He even looked slightly embarrassed even if flattered at the compliment and it made him all the more likeable.

"Yeah, nowadays it does." A chubby kid, huh? Well, admittedly Hunk did look heavy, especially around the midsection, but with the short-sleeved shirt Lance could see the guns that he had for arms! This guy must be some kind of boxer or something like that, Lance couldn't tell.

"Wanna sit down somewhere?"

"Sure."

 

They spent the rest of the trip talking, sitting below deck with their backs against Blue's belly. They got along extremely well. Maybe, because both Lance and Hunk were of friendly nature, which seemed to fit perfectly together.

Hunk lived in Republic City since a couple of months now, due to wanting to become a Probender. He was a Probender!

"That's like the coolest thing ever!" Lance couldn't keep in his excitement. He hugged his knees and leaned in with a smirk plastered on his face. "Back at home it's hard to get to know much about the outside world, but my, uh, kind-of-uncle Coran lives in Republic City and he visits a lot, bringing presents! I have a poster of The Rock before he retired! The guards at Coran's temple usually listen to the Probending matches on the radio so Coran sometimes tells us some about it. It's _reallyY_ awesome! That also really explains your huge arms, man, I bet you could literally choke me with those! _And that's a compliment!_ "

Yet again, Hunk looked both flattered and embarrassed, but laughed at Lance's comment about his arms. "Yeah, well, to be honest, becoming a Probender wasn't exactly what I originally had planned. A family friend, Akamu, lived in the Capital for a while so when I went to visit him there, he took me to see a match. And, like, he was friends with one of the Earth-Probenders and since I'm an earthbender, too, Akamu wanted me to get some advice. And, the Probender, Lio, said I had some great strength, so he offered to train me since he was going to retire soon anyway, so, yeah, one thing led to the other and that's kinda how I ended up staying there. I recently finished the training, about five months ago or so, and joined the _Dragonflies_. We're just starting, but we've been _on a roll_. Our firebender, Kogane, is /really/ good, although he does have a bit of a temper sometimes."

"That's so awesome! I totally gotta see one of your matches some time!"

"It'd be nice having another supporter there, that's for sure. Since we're still kinda new we don't really have that many fans yet." Hunk rubbed his neck, adjusting the orange headband around his forehead. "What about you? Are you going to the Capital to visit your uncle?"

Lance hesitated. He couldn't exactly tell him the truth, even if he usually jumped at the chance to show off. _'Hi, yes, I'm the Avatar but the Council of the White Lotus kept me hidden away at home for the majority of my life for some reason that they won't tell me so I ran away to get my airbending training'_. Well, Lance _could_ say just that, but he had the feeling there was an important reason that no one was properly explaining the situation to him. So, he didn't want to drag anyone else into this shitty situation.

"Yeah, I guess you could say that." He replied instead, shrugging. Hunk obviously noticed that something about the topic was off, but instead of insisting, he let it go lke the civilised nice sympathetic teddy bear in human form which he seemed to be. Lance liked this guy more with every second.

 

At the end of their trip they were basically best friends. The trip to Republic City had taken up a couple of days, and Lance and Hunk hadn't parted the entire time. Lance couldn't be any happier about finding this new friendship.

"Look, I gotta go and pick up my training again. Wanna come along?" Hunk had been quite excited about showing Lance what exactly Probending was and how it worked besides six guys beating each other up with their bending skills. But Lance, despite really wanting to go, had to decline.

"Sorry, I'd love to, but I really need to see Coran. Urgent stuff to talk about." He made a face, obviously not looking forward to the conversation they'd be having. Coran wouldn't be happy about Lance running away from home to come all the way here, _all on his own for that matter_ , and he would probably try to send him home immediately, but Lance was determined to stand his ground. He was the _Avatar and he was getting his goddamn airbending training_.

"It's fine, buddy, don't worry." Hunk really was a saint. "Just drop by any time, I'm practically all day at the arena training anyway."

"I'll bring a snack when I do."

"I feel like we've already known our whole life."

 

Hunk had offered to lead Lance to the Air Temple Island, claiming that the streets could be quite confusing for someone who wasn't used to huge cities, especially someone who wasn't really used to cities at all. But Lance, cocky as he was, had insisted on being able to navigate himself perfectly well, and he had even given Hunk a push so that he would finally leave to where he had to go. That had made Hunk finally give up. That guy was just too nice for his own good.

But now Lance wished he would have taken Hunk's offer. Lance, even though he hadn't wanted to admit it to himself at first, was hopelessly lost. He was leading Blue down the streets by the still snapped rein, both their stomachs growling with the desperate plead for food. The people walking down the streets had to make great effort to dodge the giant cat taking up most of the sidewalk and they disapprovingly shook their heads or threw complaints his way but Lance was mainly preoccupied with _just how hungry he was_ , and how his stomach was killing him, hand resting on his belly in an attempt to soothe its angry growling.

But today didn't seem to be on his side, because one particular boy seemed to not be willing to dodge Lance and his giant cat friend and instead ran head-on into him. Blue was friendly enough to be able to catch Lance with her snout before he could fall onto his butt, pushing him back to his feet. But the boy who had run into him didn't have the luck to be in company of a friendly giant pet so he fell hardly onto his rear.

Lance, still dazed with the feeling of hunger which he wasn't used to, could only stare at the stranger for a moment that felt like an eternity. Maybe it was just Lance's mind being clouded, but this boy was _particularly pretty_. He had really pretty hair that looked really soft, too, although, he frowned a little at the weird haircut. The name of it was on the tip of his tongue, but he couldn't think of it just yet. Then, there were those eyes and maybe it was just the bright sun of Republic City shining right at the perfect angle to make his violet eyes shine bright like amethysts in, well, the sun, but as of now Lance felt enamoured with the strange boy, although slightly envious, too, of how flawlessly pretty he was.

"Look where the fuck you are going, you idiot!" Okay, the boy was particularly less enamouring when he was yelling insults at him, so, Lance's mind de-clouded a little.

"Mullet! There it is! You have a freaking mullet- Hey, who are you calling an idiot!" To be honest, Lance got insulted a lot at home for being clumsy, causing trouble, for being the little brat he always was, but being called an idiot or stupid in general had always been a thing that could rile him up the wall.

"I'm calling YOU an idiot, because you are! A blind idiot, that is, apparently also _freaking deaf_!" The boy was still sitting on his butt and finally pushed himself back onto his own two feet. It was then, that Lance also noticed the fancy clothing he was wearing. A red jacket with the collar pulled up and golden adornments on the chest, and black dress pants paired with obviously expensive leather shoes. He also was wearing a pair of black fingerless gloves that didn't quite fit in with fancy outfit, but the whole appearance was still enough to easily guess for Lance that this guy was from the upper class. And from the way he was acting he was also a damn prick, too. "Get out of my way or I'll make you."

Lance growled under his breath. Those words were just enough for Lance to thrust Blue's reins into a random stranger's hand and get into a fighting position, hissing the words "Make me, then." at the stranger he had met only about two minutes ago, because Lance was hungry, his head hurt, he was just a tiny bit dizzy already because of the heat being all the worse in his too thick clothes not meant for such weather, and to add to it he was still pissed at the council of the White Lotus for dictating his life like this and at Coran for breaking his promise of training him, so a random stranger running into him and then insulting him had just been enough to sink the ship that was Lance's self-control.

Apparently, the stranger had been either just as pissed at life and just looking for a chance to fight someone, or maybe he just didn't have any self-restraint whatsoever, because he was the first to attack by thrusting his fist into Lance's direction and shooting quite the large flame at Lance at a speed that barely gave him the time to bend water from two buckets nearby and let them collide into each other and into the flame that nearly singed his facial hair off. So this guy was a firebender and a quick one as well. Little after the first attack, Lance was forced to pull water out of wherever he could find it, just to counterattack and defend himself. The Stranger was quite the enemy, fighting with all he had, with an anger Lance hadn't yet seen in any other person before, as if there was an eternal amount of frustration in that short body of his. Now, Lance was quite glad that he took up acrobatics, one of many hobbies he tried out when there was nothing else to do at home.

"Fuck!" Yet again the Stranger had shot fire right at his face, obviously having picked up on Lance's flaw of not liking fire anywhere near his it, and Lance used up the very last bit of water on the street to shelter himself. The force of the attack had thrown him off balance as well, making him fall onto his back. Just as he opened his eyes, Lance could see the Stranger running towards him, fist already flaming up, and Lance couldn't see any more water resources, so he did what any Avatar would have: He used his other bending skill. It was the only thing he could think of, something that had helped him quite a lot during his training and matches against other earthbenders: Form a rock large enough that your enemy will have it hard to bend easily in the heat of the moment, and throw it their way with all you have. And thus, Lance did, levitating a large chunk of rock from the concrete street they were fighting on and threw it at the Stranger, shutting his eyes for a moment. Just when he opened them again, sitting up quickly to see if he had been successful with his attack, he saw the rock- Fuck, was another earthbender anywhere near? Because he could have sworn the rock had slowed down a lot more than was naturally possible. And there was no way this firebender could also earthbend- But he was proven wrong when the same firebender, this prick that had run into him and had the nerve of pushing the fault onto Lance and even fight him for a stupid mistake _Lance hadn't made_ , that same stranger had stopped this HUGE FREAKING ROCK right over his own head and was no throwing it _Lance's way_. Eyes widening, Lance had barely enough time to roll out of the way, just in time to see the rock smash a crater into the concrete where he had been lying on just seconds before.

Lance usually would have thrown something at the Stranger, something along the way of ' _WHAT THE FUCK IS YOUR PROBLEM!_ ', but he was honestly a little distracted by this _FIREBENDER bending EARTH_. That was impossible. Only _the Avatar _could bend more than one element__ and yet, there that stranger stood, still glaring at him like Lance had killed his family, and now stomping towards Lance. But Lance could hardly concentrate on the threat this stranger obviously was to him, instead Lance stood shakily, looking at the Stranger with shock, horror, surprise, confusion.

"How the fuck did you do that?!"

"What do you mean?" Spat the Stranger back at him, stopping ten feet away from Lance. He looked significantly less angry now and more confused, although shocked as well.

"How did you throw that rock at me?!"

"What do you mean how?! It's obvious! It's called EARTHBENDING, smartass. I'm the AVATAR, I tend to do that! The true question is-"

But Lance wasn't listening anymore, too shocked, too confused by the statement.

_You can't be the Avatar, because I'M the Avatar._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Writing fight scenes is hard OTL
> 
> I hope you enjoyed it!


	3. Be the leaf (Air)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance finally gets the explanation he wanted. Wooden planks beat the shit out of him. Hunk needs someone to help him out. Lance is quick to offer his help, even if it means to bear the company of yet another angry firebender.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I changed the _"(Fire)"_ in the chapter titles to _"(Air)"_.  
>  I was also finally able to think of a name for Hunk's Probending team! _The Dragonflies_ , which in the world of the Avatar are these kind of flying insects, a cross between an actual dragonfly and a lizard with three heads: http://avatar.wikia.com/wiki/Dragonfly
> 
> Don't get used to this updating schedule! I just want to get through this introduction part and get to the interesting part of what I have planned! _I have so much planned._
> 
> And thank you guys so much for the positive reaction to this fanfiction!! I'm so glad you like it! <3 It's a really great motivation to know what you guys think and your reactions in the comments

"You can't be the Avatar, because _I'M_ the Avatar!"

Lance didn't know what exactly it was that made him so angry about this. He should have probably been more confused than actually pissed at this stranger who he had just met. 

Maybe it were because of Lance's own insecurities. 

Maybe it was because six-year-old Lance had been already rather insecure, looking up to his 14-year-old brother who was participating in the Ice Dodging Rite to become a true warrior and protect their tribe, earning everyone's respect and admiration. 

Maybe it was because 14-year-old Lance wished he could be as confident and persistent as his 16-year-old sister who flirted with every guy she met, out of pure fun, taking them away right under Lance's grasp, only ever leaving the girls to him.

 Maybe it was because being stuck as the middle kid sucked, especially when you were part of such a big family as his was. He had five siblings after all!

Maybe it was because  15-year-old Lance loved how everyone looked at Lance when he mastered his first element, water, and showed off to the people of his tribe, seeing how they looked at him with the same admiration that they reserved for talented warriors like Matias and the same envy they reserved for beautiful confident girls like Claudia. 

Lance didn't _like_ feeling so insecure about himself but, really, to Lance there wasn't much besides him being the Avatar. That was his _thing_. It was what made him special, and although of course he also liked being the Avatar because he wanted to protect the people he loved, it was only _human_ to  desire such selfish things like respect and admiration.

But Lance prefered telling himself that he was yelling at this stranger not because he was insecure in many ways, but because that guy was pissing him off by being rude and stupid.

But that guy was having none of it. "You are insane! I just TOLD you _I'm_ the Avatar! Everyone here knows it! Have you been living under a rock?! I don't know _how_ you did that rock-throwing-thing, but you're obviously a fake!"

Oooohhh, now he was pissing Lance off _for real._ "A fake? Could a fake do this?" Huffing, Lance stomped  onto the ground, another chunk of concrete jumping up. Noticing a steaming car drive by that same second he took another step while simultaneously bending water from the engine into the back of the Stranger's head in a fluid wave-like motion. Then, in a third and last step he blew air into the Stranger's face hard by thrusting his hand towards him, fingers pressed together tightly. 

Okay, now, that Stranger looked at him like he was seconds away from murdering Lance right there on that street and, oh, now Lance could see both his fists flaming up. But Lance mentally decided that it was worth it all considering how ridiculous the Stranger looked with his hair sticking up like that after the blow of air and Lance honestly didn't care about fighting this guy further, because he was _so pissed_ _off_ -

Right when the Stranger reached back to throw a flaming fist into Lance's face, there was a loud shout from behind him, freezing him up mid-attack. Lance didn't recognise the voice but the Stranger obviously did, his face becoming pale, eyes wide. The steps of whomever had shouted approached rapidly until Lance's opponent was pulled back by the back of his collar. 

" _Shiro_ -"

"Shut it, buddy. You are coming back with me this instant, apologising to _the Ambassador_!"

"But that guy started it-"

"I don't care who started it, he's the _Ambassador_. And you are the Avatar, so act like it for once!"

In front of Lance stood a man towering over the Stranger Lance had been fighting against. With the second, Lance's opponent looked decreasingly intimidating and increasingly frightened himself. And _very_ embarrassed. 

The new guy had impressive muscles and wore a black shirt with the sleeves folded up, though, a rather huge stain of wine was soaked into the silky fabric at the front, as if someone had almost purposefully spilled their drink there. He wore a pair of dress pants similar to the Stranger's. His hair was completely black and his skin pale, eyes dark although too thin for Lance to tell what colour they were. There were a few droplets of sweat running down his temple, shorts breaths leaving his lips as he was panting. 

Just for a moment Lance had nearly forgotten about the situation, because, honestly Lance was just so _bisexual_ and this new guy was just so, _hnng_ , even when he looked distressed, angry, and agitated like this. Or maybe exactly because of that. But the aftermath of Lance's angry outburst was still visible on his face with a frown that was still directed at the pair in front of him, something that Hot New Guy was obviously taking as a sign of Lance being offended by whatever this other Stranger might have done to him.

"I'm _so_ sorry about my brother." Hot New Guy said, turning to face Lance, giving him an apologetic smile, as if to soothe Lance's anger, and, shit, that _worked_. And this guy obviously knew. "He  can be a handful on his bad days and today is obviously one of those." He cleared his throat, rummaging in the pockets of his pants. "Here-" He took out a bundle of bills, the local currency, and took Lance's hand to put the money into it. His hands were warm and Lance wished they would have held his for a moment longer. "I hope this is enough for whatever he destroyed this time. _Please_ , don't be mad at him." And he said that in a tone as if his brother was just a small child that had been in this kind of trouble so often already, ticking off strangers and fighting them on the public street. And now Lance just felt pity for Hot Guy. 

"Uhm-"

"Again, I'm really sorry." 

And then, Hot Guy was dragging Stranger away, still by the collar, the both of them continuing to bicker, Stranger complaining, Hot Guy scolding him for whatever the other had done to the Ambassador of Wherever.

And Lance was left behind with more questions than he had had already when coming to Republic City. And he had the bad feeling that he would be dealing with Hot-Headed Stranger again, very soon. He just hoped that him and Hot Guy came in a package.

 

Coran flinched heavily when the door to the eating area of his home was slid open with much force and a furious-looking Lance stormed into the room like thunder. Loud and intimidating. Coran had never actually seen Lance as angry as this. A few other monks of the temple followed Lance inside, looking distressed.

"Master Coran, we tried to stop him-"

"YOU have some huge explaining to do!"

Allura, daughter of Avatar Alfor and Councilwoman of Republic City, was sitting at the table in front of Coran, giving him a look that clearly said _What have you done while you were away?_

"Why didn't you tell me that there was a second Avatar? I think that might have been something that I, as, you know, _the_ Avatar, ought to know!" Lance was angry. He felt betrayed, disappointed, most of all angry. He had dedicated his life to learning the elements, taking up on Avatar duties... Hell, he had sucked it up being stuck at home, not allowed to leave the tribe, only allowed to put all of his concentration on becoming the Avatar. If Lance had known there was another guy doing the same, Lance could have taken up becoming a warrior instead! Lance remembered, when he was 15, how he had thought _Fuck being the Avatar, I wanna travel the world._ But Lance hadn't had the choice. Or so he had thought.

Allura and Coran exchanged an uneasy look. It was Allura who dared to speak, though. "Lance, we've got an explanation, but right now, we don't have the time. It's a long, complicated story and Coran and I have a meeting to attend."

"No meeting can be more important than telling me why I have wasted my life training to be the Avatar when there's another guy doing that already!"

Allura looked like Lance had slapped her across the face. Maybe he shouldn't have used the words 'wasted my life' when referring to being the Avatar. Allura's father had been the previous Avatar, after all. He had sacrificed himself, his family, everything he had to being the Avatar and helping the people, so it was quite the sensitive business to her. A business she was sacrificing her own life for now. 

"I will explain it to you, Lance, but right now our first priority is getting you home! Lance, you can't just run away from home! Your parents will be worried sick, they don't even know if you arrived safely! I'll be sending them a letter immediately and you are going back _first thing tomorrow morning_!"  Allura's face was slowly turning redder, although it was hard to tell with her dark skin, her beautiful dark skin. 

"Allura, you can't just send me home! I came all this way, and now that I'm here I could at least-"

"My words are final."

"You aren't my parent, you can't make me go back!"

"While you're here, though, _Coran is_ and he agrees with me, doesn't he?" 

Both Lance and Allura turned their heads towards the mentioned man still sitting at the table, head slightly duck and shoulders raised in a defensive pose. The arguing pair was directing their glares at him now and he obviously wasn't comfortable with the attention he was getting. Even though he held a special place for Lance in his heart, he did for Allura, too, and she was his boss, technically speaking.

"Lance, my boy, I do agree with you that your airbending training should technically come before your firebending training-"

"Ha!"

" _But_ Allura is right, it's not safe for you here, yet, so there's no other way but postponing your airbending training and having you go back home. For now."

"What?!"

 Allura looked pleased with herself and nodded at Coran, approving of his final decision as Lance's temporary caretaker. 

"Coran, I will see you at the meeting later, then. Make sure Lance doesn't leave the temple until then. Lance," She placed a hand on Lance's shoulder, squeezing it lightly. "I'm truly sorry." She meant it, Lance knew, but that didn't make his problems go away, so he had to force his mouth shut while he watched her leave. 

An uncomfortable tense silence settled over them. It felt like an eternity until Coran was the one that spoke up. 

"You look hungry, my boy. Let me get you something to eat."

Lance was silent but he nodded, gladly taking the offer he was given. He was hungry. He was exhausted, tired, upset, homesick. He felt guilty for acting out to Allura, guilty for upsetting Coran, guilty for worrying his mother back at home and probably disappointing his father deeply in making such a rash thing as actually running away. That's only a thing rebellious teenagers did, not adults. And it certainly wasn't an Avatar move, either. 

And yet, Coran mussed up his hair when he walked past the pouting boy who was supposed to grow up already, and it was almost like a piece of home, here so far away from it.

 

Now that he thought about it, maybe Lance would rather be on the ship back to the Southern Water Tribe than here, sitting on a too comfortable chair that couldn't cheer him up, in Allura's office that was far too bright and nice for the gloomy atmosphere between them. Beside Lance sat the Stranger who he had had a face off with yesterday, his arms and legs crossed, body slumped into the seat. His name was apparently Keith. Lance wanted to think what a stupid name that was, but it wasn't.

Between Allura and the two of them was placed today's newspaper, with a huge blurry picture of Lance and Keith fighting against each other on the front page with the nice title _' IMPOSTER OR TRUE AVATAR??'_ written over the photograph in thick big letters. Lance couldn't help but think that the double question mark was a ridiculous dramatisation, but that was beside the point. 

Allura sat at the desk, hands folded in front of the lower half of her face, eyes still fixed on the article with a glare, as if she could will it away. Since the moment Lance and Keith had both arrived, at the same time, she had barely looked up at them, not having said a word yet. She looked stressed. 

Lance could relate. 

"Allura-"

"Can you even remotely imagine what position you have put me- the entire Council in?" Her voice was barely more than a whisper and it was clear that she was forcing a lot of self-restraint. Allura was an excellent diplomatic person, that's just what it took for a non-bender to climb up to such a high position, despite the advantage of being an Avatar's daughter, but she could still be all the more intimidating than any bender or Avatar could be.

"Have you _read_ the article?" The two boys in front of  Allura shook their heads. 

Lance hadn't even known about the article until he had seen it on Allura's desk. Coran had kept the promise of keeping Lance in the temple until his ride back home in the morning. Lance hadn't seen the outside since he had arrived at the temple. It was only when Lance had been already shouldering his bag, ready to leave for the port, that a messenger had come to the temple, telling Lance that Allura had sent him to pick him up and bring Lance to her office, _immediately_. 

Keith, too, looked like they had kicked him out of bed to come here, although as if someone had tried to make him look presentable with his again fancy clothing and hair briefly brushed. But his eyes said we were just sleeping. 

"Oh, then, let me read it to you two." The sweetness in her voice dripped of sarcasm and she sat up, leaning back in her seat while she grabbed the newspaper. 

"' _Yesterday at exactly five at noon, the people of Republic City became witness to a troubling spectacle._

_ Our well-known Avatar Keith appeared in the district of the Water Tribe History Museum after disappearing from the long-awaited meeting between the Council and the Ambassador of Ba Sing Se where he had already caused a scandal by viciously attacking the Ambassador, an incident that will most-likely have a hindering impact on the trading deal our city had desperately been waiting for. We can only hope that it will not have any negative effect on the trade deal, otherwise the Avatar will have to take responsibility.  _

_Although, that's not where yesterday's events end just yet. Ladies and gentleman reading this, you might want to swallow your drinks and find a place to seat yourself, because the following news will shock you._

_ After attacking an important figure, Avatar Keith apparently had not had enough yet, going in search of a new fight. Now, you might say, would it not be an unfair fight for anyone to go against the Avatar? Should Avatar Keith not find someone who matches his strength? Well, that is exactly what he did, having a face off against a second Avatar.  _

_Yes, you have read that just right, a second Avatar whose existence was kept secret from us, the people._

_The fight was a spectacle witnessed by a shop owner who described the scene as 'fireworks going off and natural disasters colliding' with a damage of 10,000,000 Yuan. Now we are excited to know what the Council has to say about it. We are sure they will have an excellent explanation about who this mysterious Avatar is.'_."

Lance wanted to die right there, right now. He felt shame and something that could only be described as some kind of deep disappointment in his own life. Because, even if the article was mainly about Keith fucking up, it was Lance that had thought up the great idea of coming to Republic City in the first place. It wouldn't actually have been so bad if only he hadn't shown off his bending in public like that. Then, the article would have only been about Keith punching an important ambassador. Then, at least, it would have only been completely Keith's fault. 

Honestly, what the hell was even the problem with that guy?

"I know that this conflict might have been prevented if only you two knew about each other's existence. But unfortunately, back then it hadn't been so easy." Allura sighed heavily before she finally spoke up again. "You both know that little before my father, Avatar Alfor, died he had founded the council of the White Lotus that was meant to reign Republic City. He also put them in charge of finding the new Avatar who was supposed to follow in his footsteps. Back then I was only 10 years old, obviously I wasn't a full member of the White Lotus yet, even though my father had made clear that he wanted me to be a part of it. So when, four years after my father's death, the White Lotus started searching for the Avatar I accompanied Coran to the Southern Water Tribe where we found Lance. After all, the next Avatar in the Cycle was supposed to be a waterbender. In case that we wouldn't find our Avatar at any of the Water Tribes, though, we sent two more members of the White Lotus to check on the other locations where there supposedly was the Avatar. There was a surprisingly large amount of claimants. We left one council member in charge of the Capital. But while we were away, Keith was brought to Republic City by his parents." She paused, sitting up in her seat. 

"They brought him right to the councilman's doorstep. They explained they had adopted Keith and they knew nothing of his origin, although they lived in the fire nation where they had adopted him, too. Keith hadn't shown any signs of bending until he was about three years old. Then, he had been watching his brother's training and when Keith tried copying Shiro's moves, he had firebent. Of course they assumed that Keith was a firebender, then." She gave Keith a long look before she continued.

"It was a year later that he had waterbent as well, which was around the time when the White Lotus started searching for the new Avatar.  For your parents, Keith, it was clear that you had to be the Avatar. You starting off with firebending instead of waterbending might have been Shiro's influence, too, at least that was the only plausible explanation they could come up with. After our councilman in Republic City had made some background research it was clear that you seemingly appeared out of nowhere at the adoption centre." Allura fixed her eyes on Keith again, but there was something in her eyes that Lance recognised as suspicion. 

"So, convinced that there was obviously only one Avatar and that the other two groups would return empty-handed, the councilman let it slip to the public that they had found the Avatar. Keith was then officially pronounced the new Avatar. But when Coran and I returned, having found Lance on our mission, we were faced with this problem, of having two legitimate Avatars. Back then, it seemed still too risky to reveal it to the public, so we decided to keep it secret for a while, to wait for the right moment, but the longer we waited the less appropriate the situation seemed to become to reveal it. Even now it's a really bad timing. I'm sure both of you are familiar with the unrest in the city?" 

Keith just shrugged at that, but Lance shook his head. What unrest? 

Allura nodded curtly towards Lance. "I will induct you on our city's conflicts later on, then. The point of all of this, though, is that we don't have a choice now. You both will have to become the next Avatar."

Lance sat up from where he had been slumped into his chair with arms crossed, too. He placed his hands on his knees before he spoke. "Allura, how is that supposed to work? There can only be one Avatar. It's not like there can be some kind of replacement Avatar. That's what the reincarnating is for." 

"That's not quite what I meant, Lance. There will have to be two Avatars, at the same time. You two will have to work together closely, enough so that you both can be as much as one Avatar."

Lance and Keith shared a look, both looking horrified at Allura's demand. "No!" They shouted in synch, both sitting up in unison. 

"Allura, that's crazy!" 

"It is, I admit it. But as I mentioned before, we don't have a choice. Now, the plan is, you both will continue your Avatar training. Although it would be best if you trained together I know that you aren't on the same levels of skill. Since the Koganes were friendly enough to pay for Keith's training so that we wouldn't have to pay double the cost and could instead concentrate on Lance's training, they also have been administrating Keith's training. While you have been mastering one element at a time," She gestured towards Lance. "-Keith has been training the elements at the same time, only having mastered firebending and earthbending so far. But since you both need to train together to establish a bond and make your teamwork better than this," She let the newspaper fall back on the desk to emphasise her words. "-you _will_ have shared training sessions. But that I will have to properly talk through with both your mentors. Lance, I believe you will be happy to hear that, now that you are here and you can't just leave, you will be starting your  airbending training. I believe that's what you wanted all along."

"Yes! Success!" Lance cheered, but his excitement quickly died down as he realised what he had been just doomed to. "Ugh, but, really, Allura? _Bonding_ with this guy? Is he even able to do such a thing?"

" _Whatever_." Keith snapped and stood up so suddenly that the chair fell backwards. But the rebel ignored it and made his way out. 

"Keith, where are you going-"

"I have _training_ to do." And with that, Keith had left the room already, acting like an  angsty teenager right out of a book. 

"This is what you have been dealing with all this time?" Lance pointed his thumb towards where Keith had disappeared and left the door opened. Allura leaned her forehead against her folded hands and nodded. "Wow, what an _outstanding_ Avatar."

 

As Allura had promised, Lance's airbending training started, this morning, too. When Lance returned to the Air Temple one of the monks was already waiting for him at the entrance, looking rather nervous about Lance's presence, though. Oh, well, Lance hadn't exactly made the best first impression. 

"Avatar Lance! Master Coran is waiting for you on the training grounds, ready to start your airbending training. He says to change into the clothes left on your bed in your room and meet him right away. There's no time to be wasted!" The monk imitated Coran's words perfectly, all in mockery of course, but it still made Lance laugh. It caused the monk to smile, visibly more relaxed. 

"Well then, I shouldn't leave him to wait." 

 

It didn't take long for Lance to get ready and to the training grounds of the temple, soon standing in front of his new mentor. He tugged unhappily at his clothing, the traditional clothes of the Air Nomads consisting of a yellow long-sleeved shirt with matching yellow pants and a small orange cape around his shoulders. 

"Coran, I don't think this colour suits me too well-"

"Nonsense! You are a very handsome young man!" Coran placed a fatherly hand on Lance's shoulder. 

"Yeah, but that wasn't what I meant-"

"Now, now, there's no time to be wasted! Keith has already started his airbending training long ago!" Now _that_ made Lance stand straighter and finally let go of that ridiculous cape. 

On his way back from Allura's office to the Air Temple Island, Lance had had quite some time to think about the occurring events. 

When Keith insisted on being the Avatar during their fight yesterday, Lance had had already glimpses of how he felt about two Avatars existing. Last night he hadn't had much time to think about that, instead he had tried to comprehend the encounter, whether there really _were_ two Avatars. Now that it was certain, Lance didn't know how he  was _supposed_ to feel about it.  Allura had expressed clearly how it was of  utter importance that they worked together to become ' _Team Avatar ©_ ' but already they hadn't exactly started out their best. They had only known for a day and seen each other maybe twenty minutes of it, only interacting directly for about half of it. And exactly 100% of that time Keith had been a real arsehole. And it made Lance want to gouge his eyes out only _thinking_ about  working with Keith. That guy could really make his blood boil. He didn't deserve to be as good-looking as he was. 

And now, Lance wanted to be better. He wanted to be better than Keith, show that he could be the better Avatar. He wanted to _beat Keith_.

"Then, let's do this!"

"That's the spirit!" Coran gave him a wide proud grin. "Now, you told me you already could produce air, at least?" 

Lance nodded. "Yeah, but I can't control it. Mostly it just comes out in bursts and catapults someone across the room or something."

Coran nodded and crossed his arms, lifting a hand to stroke the ends of his mustache between his thumb and forefinger. "Hm, that could be because of your spirit being out of balance with the spiritual part of airbending. The spiritual training is an essential part of mastering the art of airbending. Back in my days the monks would sometimes spent days only meditating without no break to sleep or eat!" Lance obviously didn't look too eager to try that. "We will be doing that later, although not for days yet. First of all, we'll have to bring you closer to the air."

Lance gave him a weird look. "Closer? There's _literally_ air all around us."

"I didn't mean physically, but spiritually." He placed a hand on Lance's upper back, leading him towards a wooden platform. There were wooden planks placed upright, rotating easily with the faintest breeze on the island. Each of the planks had many colourful patterns drawn on them, although they were faded with the years. 

"That looks super old."

"It is, well observed! It's as old as this temple, if not older. I don't remember. If I'm not mistaken, though, this is the same one Avatar Alfor used when he founded Republic City."

"That thing is ancient!"

"Maybe not quite yet. But _it_ _is_ built in an ancient traditional way, resembling the ones used in the rest of the air temples."  Coran looked particularly proud. "They're beautiful aren't they?" 

There was no way Lance couldn't agree. Indeed it was old-fashioned beauty. "Did Keith train with this, too?"

Coran kept his gaze on the training tool, tilting his head pensively. "Surprisingly, the Kogane family decided that it would be best if Avatar Keith's training happened entirely at their residence. They built their own copy of this artifact, not completely in the traditional way, but close enough to be of the same use."

"I bet he burned it down."

"He did, a couple of times."

Lance snorted at that, pushing up the sleeves of his unfortunately still brightly yellow shirt. "Alrighty, then, show me what to do."

"Eager as always! I bet you will be mastering this excercise quickly!" 

Coran blew a strong blow into the group of planks and took a few steps towards the platform, taking a deep breath and getting into the default airbending pose. His knees were bent ever so slightly, keeping them loose. His hands lifted with his fingers outstretched and pressed together. That was the most relaxed Lance had ever seen  him. 

"The aim is to get through it, without so much as touching the planks. Like this." 

He stood there for a moment more before he stepped onto the platform and moved his way between the rotating planks. There were only few things as impressive as the sight of someone moving between rotating planks with such fluidity and elegance, swift on his feet, reminding Lance of when his parents used to dance at festivals, moving between the other dancing couples and small children running around, their eyes always on each other. It was such a romantic sight that it had only fueled Lance's desire for a girlfriend and fed his already romantic nature. 

Soon, Coran had made his way out at the other side of the platform with an impressive last spin. When he opened his eyes he was back to being his energetic self. "How was that?"

"That was awesome!" Lance had to admit he was pretty excited about trying it out himself. It looked so easy and Lance had always been swift on his feet, a natural dancer, too, so he was confident. "I'll try it now!"

"Let's go then!" Coran agreed with equal enthusiasm and blew another burst of air into the group of planks, making them spin a little faster, airbending to keep them rotating. 

When Lance stepped onto the platform with vigor, though, it didn't exactly go as smoothly as he had expected. Instead of dancing around the planks, he was met with one slapping him across the face, another one pushing him from behind into yet another rotating plank. And repeat. And repeat. Several times he was pushed around, feeling panic rise, until the platform finally spat him out the other side. He fell onto his face into the sandy ground, staying there, lying in the dirt. 

"Kill me."

"Not yet, boy!" Coran came running towards him, helping him up by hoisting him back onto his feet with a hold on his arm.

Everything was spinning in Lance's head but somehow he still managed to keep on his feet. 

"You must not resist it! Feel the wind and move with it, not against it. Here, look." Coran walked towards a nearby bush and plucked a leaf from it, walking back to the platform that was still maliciously rotating. He released the leaf from his hand and it was sucked immediately into the tiny tornados produced by the rotation. Coran wrapped an arm around Lance's bruised shoulders and pressed their cheeks together, leaning them both closer towards the training tool to observe the leaf closely. "Observe how the leaf moves. It moves with the wind, putting up zero resistance but flying wherever the wind is taking it, into whatever direction it's blown. It fully trusts the breeze to lead it safely to the other side." And just as he said that, the leaf, indeed, peacefully came out the other side of the platform, being carried away by the next breeze, away from the island. Lance wished he could, too. 

"And now, try again!"

 

At the end of the day Lance had several bruises on his back and arms as well as a black eye. At some point Coran had finally granted him mercy and stated that maybe all Lance needed was more of a spiritual connection to calm himself. 

While they prepared to meditate for the rest of the day, Coran had expressed his honest surprise about Lance not mastering the leaf practice immediately. He told him how similar Lance was to Avatar Alfor. Apparently the both of them shared the same sympathy and enthusiastic nature, always being up for a joke or a prank, especially in their younger years. They both were of pure heart and radiated warmth and were always out to help those in need. Those words caused a familiar warmth to build in Lance's chest. 

In Coran's eyes Lance was a born Avatar, not only literally but also figuratively. Avatar Alfor had mastered the leaf practice immediately, so Coran had expected Lance to do so as well. But maybe the airbending training since birth had been a contributing factor to Avatar Alfor's immediate success, teaching him unconditional and inexhaustible patience, a lesson Lance had been spared of so far. 

At some point in the early evening Coran had left Lance alone to continue meditating. Although, until now, Lance had mainly been falling asleep or whining about his injuries. But Coran had trust and hope in him so Lance tried his best to keep himself from falling asleep after Coran left him alone to practice. 

But at some point Lance was just too tired of sitting there doing nothing, being too hyperactive in nature to sit there completely still. His leg was consistently moving up and down, almost vibrating, on its own, his bruised eye was twitching. His back hurt and so did his neck. 

At some point the wind carried the sounds of faint cheering and a motivated moderator going on about two teams beating each other up in the most exciting way. That perked Lance's interest and when listening closer he recognised it as a Probending match. Lance had never listen to a match personally but only ever heard Coran comment about it, how they fought a lot more brutal and unfair than the traditional art of bending allowed. For Lance it had always sounded appealing but back at the Southern Water Tribe radios didn't work with the constant snow storms and there certainly were no Probending matches since there were only waterbenders available. 

Lance didn't know where exactly Coran had went but he hadn't appeared in the past five hours so Lance couldn't imagine he would be coming back any time soon, either. With his trademark troublemaker smirk Lance stood from his sitting position, wobbling for a moment, patting at his legs to stop the numb feeling and for the blood to rush back into them. Finally he was able to sneak away from the pavilion, following the sounds of the radio. Of course, the guards were yet again listening to the Probending matches, neglecting their duty, but who would dare or even want to attack the Air Temple anyway? 

With skilled moves Lance climbed onto the roof and lied flat on it, closing his eyes and listening to the match. He could vividly imagine it, the cool moves. It was just getting to the peak of the match, the climax, there were only two Probenders left on the platform they fought on, when-

When the radio was turned off. 

"As much as I understand how exciting the Probending tournaments are for some people, I advise you three to get back to your duties or I will see myself forced to have a word with Coran about the guards neglecting their tasks." Allura's voice was icy cold and hard like stone. Lance didn't need to see the display below him to know that the guards were saluting to Allura in utmost respect, their knees buckling under their armour. 

Allura soon left and the guards went back to being attentive for intruders. And now, Lance haven't been able to hear the rest of the match. Damn it, it was the only positively exciting thing to do on this boring island. 

Pouting, Lance lied there for a couple of moments more, arms and legs outstretched when he got another idea. Well, if he wasn't able to listen to the match on the radio now, then he would just go and see it for himself. Maybe it was a naïve idea, and running away twice in less than a week wasn't exactly the best thing to do, but he wasn't running away far. And Hunk had technically expressed his wishes to have Lance see one of his matches and support him. And Lance wanted to be there. 

So, after changing into normal clothes, Lance sneaked back off the roof and towards the makeshift stables they had made for Blue upon Lance's arrival. Although she was a giant pet, practically, she was still a feline, swift and predatorily silent on her feet so it wouldn't get him caught if he went with her but he would get faster to the arena. There was only one arena in Republic City, so it was obvious where he had to go. 

On his way Lance bought a snack for Hunk, after all having promised to take food with him when he visited. And he soon arrived at the arena, hearing the cheering already from outside, making Lance all the more excited to get in.

At the entrance stood a man selling tickets. Lance didn't have the money, so he hoped it would be okay if he sneaked in and found Hunk. Hopefully, he would be there, otherwise Lance would just have to sneak into the arena without being caught. 

At the back was a window opened where he climbed in after tying Blue to a street lamp, securing her there. He knew she could just bite through the already old reins anyway in case she needed to leave so he wasn't too worried about leaving her alone. Blue was a big girl and could take good care of herself. 

Inside Lance sneaked around for a couple of minutes down the corridors, not encountering anyone just yet. That is, until he felt a large heavy hand be placed quite harshly on his head, taking a tight hold on his hair. Lance's eyes widened, shoulders raising. Shit.

"And what do _you_ think you are doing here, sneaking around? No one  is allowed back here."

Lance swallowed hard and turned around. "Uhm, well, I was only searching for the, ehm, restroom?"

The tall and muscular guard looked at him, unimpressed, letting go of Lance's hair to instead grab his collar. "Show me your ticket."

"Well, you see-"

"Lance?" 

Lance's eyes widened when he heard his name be spoke and a relieved smiled spread on his face. He stretched out his arms and waved at his big friend standing behind the guard who was threatening Lance. 

"Heeeeey there, buddy! You told me to come see your match some time, so, here I am! I brought food!" He added, lifting the bag of snacks he had brought. 

For a short moment Hunk looked at the scene displayed before him. He was wearing a red uniform that changed his body shape quite a bit, making him more dorito-shaped than Lance remembered him to be, making it quite clear that the armour must have been very tight around the midsection. Could the guy even breathe? He did look short of breath. Under his arm Hunk held a helmet, with a green square on the front. 

"Riiiight... Yeah, I've been searching for you already!" The guard raised an eyebrow at Hunk's words. "Let him down, Steve, he's with me." And the guard obliged, thank god, letting Lance down. As soon as his feet hit the ground, Lance scrambled to Hunk's side. "You okay?"

"Yeah, I'm good. You up next?"

"Yep, in about five minutes so we gotta rush. Let's go." Hunk turned around to leave the way he had come from, expecting Lance to follow. And Lance did, but not without turning back to the guard before doing so. 

"Bye, Steve. Keep up the good work!" Steve growled at him, making Lance flinch and hurry after Hunk to reach him. When he did and walked beside Hunk in fast steps, he was laughing. 

"I can't believe it. You actually sneaked in, didn't you?" But Hunk was taking it with humour and so Lance laughed along.

"Not only that, I might have run away from training. Never leave a bored trainee on his own for hours on an island, without anything exciting to do." Hunk laughed out at that again. "Where are we going?"

"The dressing room. We gotta finish gearing up for the match." Just when Hunk said that, they reached the door of their destination and he pushed it open, stepping inside, Lance right after him. He nearly collided with whomever was just trying to storm out of the room, the guy not caring if he ran Lance over, shouting "FUCK ALL OF YOU, I'M _OUT_!"

The guy was dressed in the same uniform Hunk and the other guy standing in the room were wearing, and he threw his helmet at Lance before he left down the corridor, yelling profanities all the way until he disappeared from sight although not from hearing range. Lance looked down at the helmet in his hands, seeing that it was the same Hunk was wearing with the exception that the square on the front was blue instead of green. 

"Kogane, tell me that wasn't Lee, our _only_ waterbender, leaving us five minutes before our first match of the season."

The other guy standing in the room huffed and crossed his arms. He was wearing his helmet already, dressed in full gear, so Lance could only see the lower half of his face. He was visibly pouting. 

Hunk let out an exasperated sigh. "I repeat, our _only_ waterbender. We can't go out there with only two people! We'll be disqualified!" Hunk was visibly distressed. 

"Don't you have a replacement?" Lance didn't know how these things worked, but he knew that the matches were quite brutal most of the time, so, wouldn't it just be logical to have a replacement in case any of the members got hurt? Some injuries even a healer couldn't make right immediately.

"We don't. Which is why Lee was such an _important_ member. We do have someone to replace our  firebender, sometimes, but only me as an earthbender and Lee as our waterbender. Or at least we _had_."

"Well, I'm a waterbender." Lance couldn't believe he was offering himself, but he wanted to help Hunk. He really had taken a liking to the big friendly guy and he really didn't deserve getting disqualified from a match so important to him. Lance gestured to his own clothes, a short-sleeved fair blue shirt and brown pants, as if to prove he was from the water tribe. 

"Didn't you say you were still in training?" Hunk looked uncertain, nervous. Maybe even nauseous.

"But not waterbending training." Lance smirked and took a bottle set near on a bench, opening it and bending the water out in a fluid gesture, around Hunk and Kogane a couple of times before bending it back into the bottle, without having wasted so much as a single drop. "I've already mastered waterbending, no worries. I won't disappoint you. And, hey, you don't really have anyone else available, right?" 

Hunk looked at Lance for a long moment, as if trying to debate whether it would be worth a risk or maybe trying to think about what other training he might be in, but in the end he nodded, defeated. Although, slightly less tense and significantly less nauseous. "Okay. Thanks, man, you're our rescue."

"Hunk, you can't be serious." Kogane finally spoke up, voice deep, one that Lance thought he recognised from somewhere, but he couldn't quite tell. The tone of voice did piss him off, though. "You don't even know this guy-" His complaint was interrupted by the announcer asking the teams next up to enter the arena. Hunk and Kogane seemed to have a last stare off before Hunk broke the gaze to turn to the lockers. "Here-" He said and took out a spare uniform, tossing it towards Lance, who caught the clothes. "You have exactly minus two minutes to get ready."

Lance beamed. 

 

Honestly, Lance had thought this would go better. In already the first three minutes of his first round he had been pushed off the platform. He just wasn't used to being attacked by several different benders at once like that, brutal and unfair. And their opponents had quickly picked up on Lance's lack of experience, concentrating their attacks on him. The first round they lost and Kogane had tried to get his hands on Lance, fists flaming, only being held back by Hunk. 

" _Look_ , if you suck at fighting so much, at least _try_ to dodge the attacks! Only that! Do absolutely nothing, don't attack, _don't_ get any stupid ideas, just dodge and _try to stay on the fucking platform_!"

In the second round, Lance broke three rules in under eight minutes. He stepped over one of the lines, a foul. Then, he used ice, which apparently was a foul, too. And then, in a brief moment of panic when two disks came flying towards him he bent them so that they'd fly into each other. Originally, Lance had planned to keep it low when he entered the arena, let himself be the mysterious replacement of the _Dragonfly_  but now the moderator was shouting excitedly, exposing him. 

"IS THAT-? LADIES AND GENTLEMAN, WE HAVE A SPECIAL GUEST IN TEAM DRAGONFLY. _THE AVATAR!_ " 

The audience applaused him, but his move was still counted as a foul and he was banned to the zone furthest at the back, pouting, trying to ignore Kogane's shouting and cursing. God, firebenders weren't quite so popular back at home, but Lance had wanted to believe that not all of them were such arseholes. Clearly, he was being proven wrong the longer he was away from the Water Tribe.

It was only their second round, but it was clear that the _Dragonflies_ were losing miserably.  Kogane was obviously their strongest member, the one holding the team together during a match, aggressively striking while simultaneously defending Hunk, who was admittedly a big target but made up for it with brutal attacks and precision. 

But now Kogane was pinned by the waterbender to the side of the platform where the net was supposed to keep them from falling off, a mean stream of water directed at him, preventing him from launching any of his fiery attacks. Like this Hunk was completely on his own against the fire and earth bender and he soon flew past Lance off the platform. Now, it was only Lance able to do _anything_ , but he had promised not to act or attack and only dodge. He couldn't dodge eternally, though, or they would run out of time and lose anyway. 

Now that Hunk was off the platform, though, the fire and earthbending opponents were free to finally dispose of Lance. He was surprised they hadn't tried sooner. Now, Lance found himself being attacked from all sides, being able to dodge the fire but always being surprised by a disk coming his way and pushing him around. He felt the familiar panic rise up in his chest, being painfully reminded to the airbending training earlier today. 

Wait.

 _Exactly_. 

That was the solution. 

Time seemed to halt when the realisation hit him and, as if in slow motion, Lance took a deep breath, locking eyes with the disk flying towards him. 

Then, he let his eyelids flutter shut and thought:

_Be the leaf._


	4. UPDATE (not a chapter)

Hey there, guys, I know this hasn't been updated in _ages_ and I'm very sorry about that!

Here's a little update on how the situation is looking, though, since apparently people like this fic, much to my surprise tbh, and I don't wanna disappoint you!

**This fic isn't aborted!** I'm going to update this fic properly someday, although I don't know when. As I mentioned before in a comment, next chapter is actually already half-written and the story is pretty much already planned out rather thoroughly. And I'm actually very excited for what i have planned (although I don't wanna raise your expectations too much hahaha). And I'm planning on rewriting the chapters uploaded so far because upon re-reading them I've cringed heavily at my own writing and some mistakes. I can do better than this, I promise OTL 

But, unfortunately, time is short on me right now. I don't know if any of you know or follow my art blog on tumblr, but that's been my main focus as of right now, I'm currently drowning in projects, especially since lately I've been experiencing quite the uprise (I'm really excited about that!!). But also, I'm going to re-enter university soon, into a new course of study that'll consume even more of my freetime, than what i was studying before 

But as I said, I'm not aborting this fanfiction, I'm certainly going to continue this!! Because, some things can't properly be expressed in art as well as in words. 

So, yeah,

I'll see you soon!

-icarus

 


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